Alien Apocalypse
by trinfaneb
Summary: The Buffyverse goes to war against the invading alien Posleen after Chosen. Crossover with the John Ringo books, Stargate and many others.
1. Prologue and Chapter 1

Author: trinfaneb (trinfaneb at yahoo dot com)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything-Joss Whedon, John Ringo and others own all.

Notes: This is primarily a cross-over with the John Ringo "Legacy of the Alledenata" books ("Hymn before battle," "Gust Front," "When the Devil Dances," and "Hell's Faire"), although characters from a variety of other tv shows, books, and movies will make an appearance. The plot of the Posleen books should become more clear as the story progresses, but you can also read much of these books for free at baen dot com. 

I was motivated to write this story because I wanted to find out what happens to the Buffy gang after "Chosen" and also because I love the Posleen books and ideas started clicking into my head when I tried to figure out how I could combine the two universes. There is a lot of exposition in the first five chapters, but after that there is more action.

The main change I've made is to move the Posleen timeline forward almost two years. Therefore my Presidential address is in 2003 where the original one is in 2001. I've also added the character of Casca to the Scoobys and had him save Anya in the "Chosen" battle. His background is mentioned in this story, but you can find more info in my "The Eternally Cursed," which is a pre-quel to this story, although you don't have to read one to enjoy the other. 

  
  


Alien Apocalypse

Excerpts from "Slayers against the Posleen" by the Watcher's Council Historical Society

All thoughts and dialogue are verbatim thanks to GalTech memory extraction techniques, except for certain instances where memoirs and AID records have been used.

  
  


Prologue

Tir looked at the burning world depicted on the view-screen and said, "Your Ghin, surely you would not go ahead with the decision to use the humans if you really thought it would lead to the ruin of the Darhel."

"The conclusion is inescapable. Either the Posleen conquer all our worlds and eat us or the humans reduce us to nonentities after they defeat the Posleen. With the humans there is at least the chance we can exert some of our old controls to guide towards a miraculously favorable outcome. I believe the humans have an expression for this. They say, "And maybe the horse will learn how to sing."

Tir didn't yet understand the meaning of the phrase, but he thought singing lessons were well within his abilities. 

  
  


Chapter One

Mid April 2003 ad

Sunnydale, California, Sol III

Casca the immortal mercenary struck Vi with a killing blow the moment most of United States first learned of the coming Posleen invasion. As the rest of the Potentials looked on, Casca asked, "What did she do wrong?"

"Besides being born a Potential, she waited too long to make her move," said Rona.

"Yeah by the time she countered your swing, you were already inside her kill zone and lining up your next move," said Amanda.

"Good answers, Potentials," Casca said as he bent over and gave Vi a lift off the grass of the Summers residence backyard. "Vi, let's go again and then we'll let the rest of you have your turn."

"Lucky me," Vi thought as she tucked a strand of red hair back inside her beret and prepared for the next drill. "I better get this one right or Kennedy will call me a maggot and give me twenty pushups."

Casca was tensing for the next strike when he heard the sound of the back door opening and Andrew yelling, "The aliens are coming, the aliens are coming-the President's on the tv-everyone come look."

"Andrew, I thought you weren't going to tell any more stories," Amanda said.

"Its not a story, they're really coming. Ever since I saw 'V, the Mini-Series,' I knew the aliens were going to invade," Andrew said.

"Andrew, is this for real?" Casca asked.

"Yes sir, it is."

"Ok then. People, let's take a break and see what's going on," Casca said as he headed for the back door.

Vi stood in her defense posture until the last of the Potentials went into the house. Any relief at getting out of Slayer Drills was drowned out by what felt like a bolt of electricity running up her spine and then branching out to her extremities in the form of goosebumps. She didn't fully realize it yet, but the life of every sentient creature on the planet had just undergone a major sea change. Earth's inhabitants were heading for uncharted waters on a swift current.

Inside the house, Casca gathered around the tv to watch the Presidential address with Anya, Xander, Dawn, Andrew, Willow, and the Potentials. The President was only a minute or two into his speech. Andrew must have guessed what it was going to be about. For the last few weeks he hadn't shut up about the rampant rumors of some big government secret he had read on the internet.

"My fellow Terrans," the President said. ""five months ago, I and other world leaders were contacted by emissaries of an extraterrestrial government." There was an electric buzz on the floor of the House of Representatives and the President made a gesture to quiet things down. "They brought greetings, a plea and a bitter warning. The aliens are much more advanced than us, but they mean the world no harm. They restrained themselves from contacting us earlier because they didn't want to affect our development as a species, but they have made contact now because they felt they no longer had any choice. You see they are involved in a war with another alien species called the Posleen. The friendly aliens are called the Darhel, The Tchpth, the Himmit, and the Indowny. They are doing the best they can, but are hampered by their non-violent nature. The Posleen have conquered every planet they have invaded so far and Earth is now next on their list. The Posleen will be here within five years and we have to stop them. Our survival as a species depends on it."

The President had then gone on about the teams of men and women who had labored secretly the last five months to design weapons and ships to counter the invasion. Galactic technology had helped greatly in this process, but it took human ingenuity to come up with the best ideas and design a manufacturing process fast enough to get the material ready in time to fight the Posleen. At the end of the speech the President showed a videotape of a human delegation viewing the invasion on the planet Barwhon V. Generals from the US, France, Russia, and China had been reassuring the reporters that their position was safe from the advancing Posleen. Suddenly there was panicked shouts and the camera swung upwards to catch of a view of a Posleen lander just before it fired a silvery bolt of lightning at the group. The camera flew through the air and landed near a battered French Paratrooper who was trying to unjam his weapon. He gave up and tossed the rifle over his shoulder, drew his bayonet, and went off camera with a cry of "Camerone!." Then there was a view of yellow legs tipped with talons and finally a burst of red blood before the picture cut out.

Afterwards the news media commented on the speech and offered pictures of all the alien species and some additional information about them. The Darhel resembled grey foxes and seemed to be at the forefront of contact with humans. The Tchpth reminded Casca of giant alaskan king crabs and were supposed to be philosophers and scientists, while the Himmit resembled grey, man size frogs. And the Indowny were short, squat green creatures that apparently furnished much of the labor force for the galactic civilization . The Posleen were centaurs the size of Arabian horses. They traveled to other planets in giant spaceships that could carry millions of their number. And hundreds of ships invaded each planet. 

Everyone camped around the tv and occasionally talked in low voices as they watched the news coverage until late into the night. Buffy came home shortly after the speech began. The news seemed to overwhelm her as much as it did everyone else. She watched the coverage for a few hours, talked with Dawn and Willow for awhile and then went upstairs to her room. For once, she didn't seem to want to make a speech of her own.

Casca had seen all kinds of upheavals and changes in the two thousand years since he had been cursed by a dying Jesus Christ to wander the earth as an immortal soldier, but he couldn't think of anything that compared to this. The Nazi invasion of Europe and the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese had shaken the world order and affected the lives of most of the people on the planet in one way or another, but this was going to change everything for everyone. It made the Kennedy assassination and the Challenger explosion seem almost trivial. 

A few months ago, Casca would have said he had seen it all, but becoming the "guestage" of the Scoobys and the Potentials after a failed attempt to kidnap Spike for money and later helping them battle against the First Evil had made him realize there were forces in this world that he had been unaware of. Now the realization of forces beyond the world knocked his worldview on its ass again. Casca remembered a Chinese curse that might be older than himself-"May you live in interesting times." 

"Well I had been getting a little bored with myself and the routine of living in the world," Casca mused as he lay on his sleeping bag and finally dozed off to sleep. "Now at least I don't have to worry about that anymore."

It had been a good day for Buffy. She had seen a steady stream of students in her office and felt like she actually helped most of them in some way. Being useful to the high schoolers took her mind off the fight with the First for awhile. After some post school conferences and a snack and coffee at the Expresso Pump, she had actually looked forward to going home and spending time with the gang and the Potentials. 

The President's speech had turned her wave of good feelings into a tide of ash in her mouth. Usually the next apocalypse had the good manners to wait until the present apocalypse was finished before it announced itself. If they somehow survived the First, they would still have to beat the aliens. It seemed hopeless.

"Screw it," she thought. "You gotta die sometime. Not like it's a big deal for me anyway."

Mid April, 2003 ad

Washington, D.C. Sol III

"Not bad," Michael O'Neill Jr. thought as he watched the President's speech while sitting at a table in the cafeteria of a government building in Washington along with the rest of the GalTech team. He and his co-workers were among the few people in the world not shocked by news of the invasion. Since just a few days after the Darhel had called the leaders of the United States, the G8, and China on their direct telephone lines, Mike and other experts had been working on designing weapon systems to combat the coming Posleen hordes. 

The 150 experts on the United States team had many fields of expertise, but thirty percent of them were science fiction writers who had military experience and/or wrote combat SF. Mike had been a webpage designer when he had gotten the call, but he was also a fledgling SF writer and he had eight years of experience in the 82nd airborne division. But more importantly he had been the driver and unofficial protegee of his commander, General Jack Horner. Mike had only been a mortar squad sergeant when they had met, but he had impressed the officer with his ability to intelligently and aggressively handle tough situations. Mike had also turned Horner onto science fiction. That was vital experience these days.

Mike and the other members of the GalTech infantry team had realized very soon that armored combat suits would be the most viable land combat system against the Posleen. The present helicopter and tank fighting configuration was out because the Posleen God-King saucers had sophisticated targeting sensors that found anything airborne. The God-Kings would fire at a target and its company of four hundred odd normals would fire all their weapons at the target if they were directed to. Nothing in the air could stand up to that. And the 1mm railguns most of the normals carried caused serious damage to an Abrams tank and a 3mm railgun could go right through a tank. A HVM (high velocity missile) would tear a tank to shreds. 

Tougher armor would likely get made for the tanks in the next few years, but they were still big and relatively immobile targets that stuck out like a sore thumb to the Posleen. Armored combat suits could dig in and pour devastating fire into the front ranks of the Posleen mass while exposing only their weapons. The suits would be the only land forces that could effectively take the fight to the Posleen and dislodge them from defensive positions. The rest of the American ground forces would be tasked with defense. The Posleen liked to land in coastal areas and had trouble crossing rivers and navigating mountainous areas. They also didn't venture into cold areas because they couldn't find enough forage. That meant that the vast Canadian plan was relatively safe and the great plains between the Rockies and the Appalachians would be the stronghold for North America. The coastal areas and likely the lowlands of the southwest would be lost, although there were plans for some urban areas to hold out as isolated fortresses.

A space fleet would be constructed to come and rescue Earth from the Posleen. The fleet would be constructed in the solar system on bases like the moon of Titan. The Posleen never attacked spatial installations for some unknown reason. The first big space battle wagons would be ready between the time the first and second invasion waves arrived. But it would take awhile to build a big enough fleet to take back the planet. It remained to be seen whether the human defenses would be able to hold or if the defenders would run out of food. Much valuable cropland would be lost and the food stores, even with greatly enhanced farm productivity, could only be expected to last for five years after the invasion started.

To make matters worst many of the human fighters and their best weapons would be expected to fight the Posleen on other planets that were being invaded by the Posleen. Expeditionary forces would be soon be sent to fight on Barhwon and Deiss. Humanity's skills as warriors was their most valuable commodity to the Galatics and they had to sell them in order to earn credits and technology for the defense of Earth. The Darhel controlled all important aspects of Galactic society and they had maneuvered things so that seventy to ninety percent of Earth's defenders would be dead before the siege could possibly be broken. Mike thought understanding the Darhel was the most vital task that could be done right now, but he had met several members of the group that was gathering intel on the Darhel and, at best, they were high grade morons. Mike tried to push that to the back of his mind because he needed to focus all his energies on fighting the Posleen.

At the beginning Mike had a choice to bail on the then-unknown secret project and be able to go back to his wife Sharon and young daughters Cally and Michelle. But General Horner had told him that he would get called up anyway in a few months in his former rank of sergeant. The choice was between giving up several extra months of his life on a secret, and he suspected vital project, or being able to spend those months with his family, but with the knowledge of some gathering storm looming on the horizon. Put in those terms, it hadn't been much of a choice for Mike. But his wife had still protested. Sharon was a raven-haired goddess and he was a short, musclebound, ugly troll-like man. Only the gaping maw of responsibility could tear him away from her. "Duty is heavier than a mountain-truer words were never spoken," he thought.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Late April 2003 ad

Sunnydale, California, Sol III

Anya was mad at Xander and was looking for him. Not for the usual reasons that a woman who has been left on the alter would have, but because of bunnies. She had been checking stock prices on Willow's laptop and had seen a bookmark favorites folder called, "Xander's Stuff." Not being able to resist herself, she had scrolled past "Daily Babe Test, Dark Horse Comics, and Gamespot" until she had seen one called "Sluggy Freelance." The idea of being able to hit someone to make money appealed to her, so she checked the site out. She clicked through several links until finally coming to an animated gif of a ferocious looking mini-lop named "Bun-Bun" with a switchblade in his hand and a word balloon that said, "Bite Me, Nerd Boy." Anya ran from the computer screaming for the head of Xander.

****

Luckily Xander had gotten a heads up from Dawn. So he was hiding down in the basement with Spike. She would never think to look for him here. Xander had tried to hide his Sluggy dot com addiction from Anya for the last couple of years but she had finally found out about his fondness for the web comic strip featuring Torg, Riff, Zoe, and the gang and their talking animal friends Bun-Bun and Kikki. Xander had often thought that a cute, poinging ferret like Kikki could have eased a lot of tension for the Scooby gang, but a mini-lop with an attitude was a no-go for the ex-vengeance demon.

"Grow a set of balls," said Spike from his cot against the wall. "Its been, what a year, since you left her at the altar."

"Didn't ask for you opinion, Captain Peroxide, thank you very much." Suddenly the hiding in the basement plan didn't seem like such a hot idea.

"Normally that would be my cue for another quip, but I'm going to give it a break," Spike said. "You and I have been beating this dead horse long enough. Speaking of dead horses, what do you think about our chances against those bleeding yellow ponies?"

"Well they are going to outnumber our soldiers by at least a thousand to one, they have superior technology, and they don't ever retreat. In summation, we are screwed."

"For once, I agree with you on something," said Spike. "But I'm not worrying about it too much. Its highly doubtful we're going to make it past the First anyway."

Xander really, really hated to agree with Spike on anything twice in a row.

****

Mid May 2003 ad

Sunnydale, California, Sol III

Buffy got up from the cot where she had lain with Spike and went to look at the moon through a basement window. A form appeared behind her and said, "Pretty, ain't it?"

"You're not him," Buffy replied to the apparition of Caleb.

"No, you killed him right and proper. Terrible loss. This man was my good right arm. 'Course, it don't pain me too much. Don't need an arm. Got an army."

Becoming annoyed, Buffy said, "An army of vampires. However will I fight...."

"Every day our numbers swell. But then you do have an army of your own. Some thirty-odd pimply-faced girls, don't know the pointy end of a stake. Maybe I should call this off."

Now she was really annoyed. "Have you ever considered a cool name? I mean, since you're incorporeal and basically powerless. How about 'The Taunter?' Strikes fear in the heart....."

"I will overrun this Earth. And when my army outnumbers the humans on this Earth, the scales will tip and I will be made flesh."

"Well if you make it past us, you still gotta take care of the Posleen-you know the nasty horse thingys from space?"

"I dealt with their masters long ago. I think I can deal with the bastard constructs that are coming."

"Whatever. Talk on. I'm not afraid of you."

The form of Caleb rolled its eyes, looked at Spike and said, "Then why aren't you asleep in your dead lover's arms? 'Cause he can't help you. Nor Faith, nor your friends, certainly not your wanna-slay brigade. None of those girlies will ever know real power unless you're dead. You know the drill: Into every generation, a slayer is born. One girl in all the world. She alone will have the strength and skill to-- There's that word again. What you are. How you'll die. Alone. Where's your snappy comeback?" Caleb had morphed into the form of Buffy for the Slayer mantra.

No matter how much the First tried to rattle and deceive, it always spoke at least part of the truth. Buffy gave up on this confrontation and said, "You're right."

"Hmm. Not your best. If you ever see your other dead lover again, ask him to tell his son Connor I said hello."

"Angel never had a son," Buffy thought. Then she remembered the weird dream she'd had after defeating Adam when the First Slayer had said, "No friends, no family." Her friends and family had given her strength. But she had still died. She needed more. More than the Potentials. More than the Scythe. She needed a better army.

Spike mumbled, "I'm drowning in footwear!" and sat up on the cot with a start. Buffy looked at him and thought, "He's dreaming about St. Hubbins, the patron saint of quality footwear again." The First disappeared.

"Buffy? Is something wrong?" Spike asked.

"No. Yeah. I just realized something. Something that really never occurred to me before. We're gonna win." With the idea behind those words, the world had changed-again.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Mid May 2003 ad

Sunnydale, California, Sol III

"What are we gonna do now?" asked Dawn.

Buffy smiled as she looked at the Sunnydale abyss and pondered the question. She'd never really thought about her future. She'd always assumed she'd die-again. Now her whole life was open to her and........

Damm those aliens. She would have to deal with them one way or another. She could try to avoid them or she could fight them. She had never been much for ultimately ducking a fight. 

"Alright people," she said to the group standing by the school bus. "Let's get ready to saddle up. I know you want to gawk some more at the ruins of our fair Hellmouth, but we've got wounded to deal with. And its probably best if we don't stick around. Too many questions."

She got on the bus and saw that Robin Wood was bleeding from a stomach wound. "Move him to a seat. Be gentle. Casca, can you drive?"

"Fraid not, my wounds might make me black out."

"Let me help you on the bus," Anya said as she grabbed the immortal's arm. "I should take care of the man who saved me from the Turok-Han, even if he is the Christ killer."

"I'll drive," said Giles.

"No you won't," interjected Dawn. "Remember you don't have a valid license."

"Oh dear, you're right," Giles said as he wiped his glasses.

"Ok, I'll drive. Sheesh, I gotta do everything around here," Buffy said in a mock serious tone. She thought about Spike driving the motor home into the deseret and almost lost it. "I will mourn him later," she thought. "I've got other things to do now."

"I don't know if that's such a good idea, sis," said Dawn. "You drive like it was a contact sport."

"I'll be careful. My finely honed slayer reflexes and coordination are under control."

"Ok, but if we crash and die, I'm telling."

Halfway to Santa Barbara, Buffy said, "Faith could you come up here for a minute?"

Faith finished wiping vampire blood from the troll god hammer and said, "I don't know B. Crossing that white line at the front of the bus while its in motion is a big step for me."

Buffy rolled her eyes. Faith crouched down next to the driver's seat. "Its too bad you're dead," said Buffy.

"Huh?"

"Too bad you died back in Sunnydale," Buffy continued. "Those gas leaks or whatever are tricky things. I know the police will be so disappointed and the prison guards will probably shed tears."

"Ok B. Not a bad plan. I like it when you think devious."

"Well I learned a lot from you," Buffy said. "I'll drop you and Anya off at a car rental place on the way to the hospital. She can rent a car and you two can drive to LA and visit Angel."

"What for?"

"We're gonna need a place to stay and he has a empty hotel, correct? I'll call him from the hospital before you get there. I'm sure he'll be glad to help out. I'll bring the rest of the gang there in a couple of days. Don't worry, we'll take good care of Robin and get him back to you."

"Sounds like a plan," Faith said. "But am I supposed to hide for the rest of my life?"

"Well Angel just took over an law firm. An evil but powerful law firm. He should be able to get a new identity created for you. I think you've earned that and he probably will too."

"Thanks Buffy," Faith said without a trace of attitude as she went back to her seat and sat next to Robin.

"Do you really think that's wise?" Giles said in hushed tones as he got up and learned forward towards the driver's seat.

"I've become a big believer in second chances. I think she'll make us proud. And we need to do something about Andrew's record too."

"Oh dear, we're becoming a recovery group for reformed criminals."

"Don't complain about this and I won't complain about you telling Robin to drive the bus away before I got on it, ok?"

"Yes, of course," Giles said.

Mid May, 2003 ad

Ttckpt Province, Barwhon V

Sgt. Jack O'Neill of the Army 7th Special Forces Group silently swatted at one of the myriad creeping, crawling, or flying things that inhabited the swamps of Barwhon as he looked through his binoculars. His team was watching a Posleen encampment. Seven pyramids that looked uncannily like those found in Mayan ruins on Earth were being constructed. Occasionally a God-King could be seen entering or leaving one of the huts found at the base of the pyramids. There were two large pens in the compound. One pen held a couple of hundred of the crab-like Tchpth. Many times now, he had seen Posleen cull individuals from the herd and slice them up on the spot with their mono-molecular boma blades. Some parts of the bodies would be eaten on the spot and other parts would be put in pouches on the Posleen's body harness for later consumption or storage in a larder. 

There was also a pen that held hundreds of young Posleen nestlings. They were fed a meager amount of food and it seemed like the weaker nestlings were killed and eaten by the larger ones. Also an occasional Posleen normal would come by the pen, scoop up one of the nestlings, and eat it. His team had been puzzled by this at first, but Sgt. Tung had suggested that the Posleen eat the nestlings because it was the only food that reminded them of home. Where ever that might be.

Jack remembered the first time he had seen an alien. Less than two weeks after first contact with the Galactics, he had been sitting in a briefing room getting to know the other members of his new team. The leader, Sgt. Jake Mosovich, had been preparing to start the briefing when Sgt. Sandra Ellsworthy, the lone woman on the squad, had announced that she saw some creature vaguely outlined against the far wall. Jack and the others honed in on the spot where she pointed and sure enough there was something there, but he couldn't tell what.

"Himmit Rigas," Mosovich said. "We weren't ready for you yet." Then a frog-like Himmit unconcealed itself and offered greetings. It disappeared a short time later. None of them could spot it again. Mosovich had continued on with the briefing, quickly outlining the military and political situation and stating that the President and the country needed independent verification that the claims and information the Darhel had provided were true. The team, to be called Eyeball 1, would go to Barwhon and do an extensive recon. They would go in a Himmit stealth ship, but they couldn't expect much help from the frogs. The Himmit had been all over numerous Posleen inhabited worlds, but they had an unreasonable fear of predators and ran at the first hint of danger. Mosovich told them Rigas was very unusual and brave for a Himmit. The Darhel were the other allied race that could fight. But they could only fire one shot and then they would kind of go brain dead. The Indowny and the Tchpth couldn't even do that, although they could indirectly support the war effort. It went a long way towards explaining why the friendly E.Ts were getting skunked in the war.

Jack had spent many nights staring up at the stars through his telescope, but he never had expected to travel among them, much less to ever make a planetary descent disguised as a comet with an eccentric orbit. The Himmit ship had pulled 200 gravities, a few of which were actually felt by the humans despite the inertial dampers. The team had jumped and floated down to the surface of Barwhon using anti-gravity devices and began their months long trek through the swamps.

Jack reflected that he wasn't supposed to be on the team. Sgt. Mueller had originally been picked for the demo spot, but he had broken his leg during a parachute drill before he'd been notified of the assignment and O'Neill had been slotted into his place rather than delay training for the team. 

Another Tchpth was culled and slaughtered. They weren't human, but Jack still felt outrage at the casual butchery of a sentient being. Right now the team was tasked with recon only, but he hoped they would get a chance to kill some of the horses. He knew it was likely he wouldn't survive that, but he didn't care. He hadn't cared much about death since his son Charlie had accidentally killed himself with Jack's handgun. Out of the Air Force and divorced, Jack had been at loose ends and fairly suicidal. But he had still felt the call of duty and of the warrior. If he went back to the Air Force, he would be an officer and likely never be able to fire a shot in anger again. So he joined the Army as an enlisted man and built his reputation in the special forces community of that branch of the service. He had seen some pretty intense action in Afghanistan and was gearing up for an invasion of Iraq when suddenly the Posleen became the main threat. 

His present team was made up of legends in the American special forces community. Mosovich, Ersin, Richards, and Trapp were Army, Ellsworthy was their Marine sniper, and Tung was from Seal Team 6. They didn't have any Air Force Para Jumpers, although Jack had been one earlier in his career. In his secret heart of hearts, Jack had always dreamed of fighting an unstoppable enemy against incredible odds. It looked like he has going to get his wish. 

Author's Note: This is the same Jack O'Neill from Stargate, but in this universe the gate, the goa'uld and all their alien stuff doesn't exist. Also Faith in my universe Faith used the troll god hammer in the "Chosen" battle and Angel defiantly told Buffy about taking over Wolfram and Hart.

Mid May, 2003 ad

Santa Barbara, California, Sol III

Kennedy looked at Willow sleeping in the hotel room bed and smiled. She smiled because she was in love with a goddess. She smiled because she was a Slayer. She smiled because she was doing something important with her life. She had never been impressed with what her parents and their friends did with their lives. Even at the age of eight, she hadn't cared much about the trappings of wealth her family provided her with. At first she had thought her new British tutor was just another one of those trappings. 

But her tutor turned out to be her Watcher and she found out she was a Potential. Her parents always had other things to occupy them and Kennedy always made good grades in her exclusive girls schools and seemed like a normal enough child, so they were happy to leave her in the care of her tutor most of the time. Little did they know that their daughter was living a secret life that a Shaolin Monk might find tough.

There was endless physical, mental, and weapons training as well as schooling in the arcana of the Watchers. Kennedy blossomed under this training. To satisfy her parents, at first, she attended dances and social functions with the sons of other wealthy people and even became girlfriends with a couple of them. Later on, she began to enjoy the functions for the chance it gave her to strut her stuff in public. But she had always felt closer to girls and had several innocent and not so innocent relationships with her female mates. She had wanted to be sure, so she had pursued a relationship with the most appealing boy she could find, but it just hadn't felt right. So at the next spring formal, she had announced to her parents that she would be attending with her girlfriend, Celeste. Her parents had freaked-not so much from a dislike of homosexuals, but from fear that their daughter's outing would cause them social embarrassment. 

They had ordered her to keep her sexuality secret. Kennedy was very good at keeping secrets, but she didn't feel like her sexual preference should be one of them. She hadn't given in and her parents had tried some heavy-handed coercion tactics, so she had legally divorced them. She was sixteen.

She had moved into the basement apartment of her Watcher, a taciturn man named Smithe. She had been attending her first year of college when she had gotten a cell phone call from him.

"I'm dying. Men wearing black robes did it. Hide and make contact with the person we discussed," he had said.

"What's your location? I'll come get you," she had said.

"Don't be foolish. Live and avenge my death. Goodbye my....." Sounds of a struggle cut off his last words. Then the connection had gone dead.

She had contacted Giles, become a part of the Potential Army, started a relationship with Willow, and become a Slayer who helped frustrate the plans of the First Evil. Now she watched her girlfriend rest. Willow had almost totally drained her self completing the spell that empowered all the Potentials to become Slayers. Still, on the bus ride to Santa Barbara, the witch had insisted on doing a spell to help preserve the life of Robin Wood. Kennedy had to carry her girlfriend off the bus and to the hotel room.

She had stayed with Willow in the two days since then, but had heard from Slayers in adjoining rooms that Robin would pull through and that the other injured Slayers were doing well. She also heard that a reporter had started asking questions at the hospital and that the police had become involved. Giles had done most of the talking and convinced everyone that their group had been mentally affected by the leaking gases in Sunnydale and gone to the high school to practice pep squad routines when Faith had appeared and tried to kill her old enemy, Buffy. The girls had fought Faith off and the fugitive had escaped into the bowls of the school just as the explosions had begun. Sadly several members of the pep squad had been killed by a collapsed wall. It was amazing the outlandish crap you could get away with speaking in a British accent and casting a persuasion spell.

Kennedy bided her time until Willow regained her strength. She had a lot of nervous tension to work off. The group would be traveling to Los Angeles the day after next. She couldn't wait. The Hellmouth had been intense enough, but LA was the big time.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Late May 2003 ad

Los Angels, California, Sol III

Dawn looked out the front window of the bus at the sights of LA. She didn't remember much about the city because she had been young when the fallout from Buffy's first Slayer skirmish had forced the Summers women to relocate from the city of angels. Or at least her implanted memories didn't remember much. It occurred to Dawn now, just as it had several times over the past year, how lucky it had been that Mom got the very reasonable offer to buy a gallery at just the time she needed it most. And that the seller had given an extremely good interest rate and long term financing and that the gallery just happened to be located in Sunnydale where there was a Hellmouth that needed a guardian. It was either fate or the Watcher's Council working behind the scenes. 

It was also terribly convenient that Sunnydale had one of the few school systems that would accept her sister, the budding Slayer/pyromaniac. She had asked Giles about it, but he didn't know exactly what the Watchers had done. He had been ordered to his position in Sunnydale before Buffy was discovered by the Council and then they had told him to take charge of her when Buffy and family had moved into town. The Council records had been lost, but Giles knew of other cases where Slayers and their families had been manipulated from behind the scenes.

These days LA was the city of Angel. Dawn hadn't gotten along with Angel like she had with Xander, Giles and later Riley and Spike. She always found Angel to be kind of stiff and not very fun to be around. She had even liked Ted more than Angel-at least until Ted turned out to be a murderous robot. Now they would be staying under Angel's roof. At least until they made more permanent plans. Dawn had met Wesley once or twice and really didn't have an opinion of him and she didn't know Fred, Lorne, or Gunn. She felt terrible about Cordelia being in a coma, but still she was glad that she wouldn't have to talk with Buffy's old classmate. Cordy had been kind of mean to Dawn her first couple of years in Sunnydale, although they had gotten along better around the time when Cordy left after graduation.

Dawn wondered what the shopping would be like in LA. The mall in Santa Barbara had been bigger than the one in Sunnydale, but still things hadn't been the same. Even going to the chain stores that looked almost exactly like the ones in Sunnydale had left her with an unsatisfied feeling. She hadn't even felt that little tingling in the back of head she got when she saw something she had to have, no matter how she got it. She had picked out her new wardrobe without much enthusiasm. It was going to take awhile to get over the loss of her town. Who would've thought losing the Hellmouth could make you kinda sad?

Long before they pulled up to the front of the Hyperion to unload, Dawn was throughly lost. She defiantly didn't remember much of LA. She was the first one off the bus and into the courtyard. Immediately she noticed the jasmine. That would come in handy for several cleansing rituals. She bent down to smell a branch and was startled when she saw a green man with horns when she looked back up.

"Sorry about that. You must be Lorne. I'm not usually so easily startled. Well actually I am. I'm Dawn."

"Its ok sugar. Welcome to the Hyperion. I would offer you one of these seabreezes, but your still a little young for that. Let me show you into the lobby of the fabulous and formerly evil Hyperion. We've been waiting for you."

The rest of the Scooby group trooped into the lobby behind Dawn and Lorne. She didn't know how to describe the architecture of the hotel, but she liked it. 

She noticed Xander turn a 360 and take in the sights. "Spanish deco-I like it." he said. "Looks like someone's doing some construction work."

"We've had crews working round the clock to get more of the guest rooms ready since Buffy called a few days ago," Angel said as he came from behind the desk. "Harris."

"Angel," Xander replied stiffly.

Buffy came walking through the door and Dawn saw an intense flash of emotion wash across Angel's face. Anyone who hadn't seen it several times before would have a hard time spotting it. Buffy walked over to the vampire and hugged him, but not for long.

"I'm glad we're meeting under less intense circumstances than we usually do," Buffy said. 

"Amen," Angel softly said. Then he spotted someone else. "Hey Willow, its great to see you again. Nice job with the big mojo."

"Thanks, it was nothing. Well it was something-enough to knock me on my tucas for two days," Willow said. "I'd like to introduce my girlfriend and one of the newest Slayers, Kennedy."

Kennedy waved to Angel. Dawn saw that the lobby was rapidly filling up with people. Buffy also noticed and said, "Gather around everyone and we'll make introductions." 

Dawn stood next to Rona and Anya as Buffy and Angel introduced everyone. She heard Anya say to the Slayer, "I have learned valuable information the last couple of days. For instance, Fred and Gunn used to be together and Wesley had the hots for Fred at one point too. But Wesley also liked Cordelia back in Sunnydale. But that didn't work out too well. No chemistry when the liplocking happened. Cordelia and Angel almost had a thing too, but he got sunk to the bottom of the ocean and she became a higher being, then part-demon, and now a coma patient. And you don't want to know how Angel and Buffy worked out. But Cordelia also had a thing with Xander during high school, but broke it off because he and Willow got the hots for each other, which is weird when you consider she now likes women."

"You have way too much time on your hands," Rona stated.

Later everyone was shown to their rooms. Dawn got one all by her self. After months of sharing her room at home and even the hotel room in Santa Barbara, it felt great to have a room of her own again. She just laid on the bed for awhile and soaked in the feeling of privacy. But before long she went down to the lobby. She couldn't miss out on all the good gossip, could she?

****

Very early the next morning Angel was sitting at his desk reading the latest news about the aliens when he heard footsteps and then a soft knock at the door. He knew that heartbeat anywhere. "Come in Buffy. Your not the one that needs the invitation, remember?"

"Well it never hurts to be polite," Buffy said as she entered and looked around the office. "So this is the LA headquarters for do-gooders anonymous? The Sunnydale branch was a lot more crowded. At least before it got sucked into the earth."

"Well this branch almost got torched in a rain of fire. And then it was the headquarters for global peace. But it turned out global peace had quite an appetite and really bad skin."

"Just our luck, we fight the First Evil and you fight the First Good," Buffy said. "We should have just stepped aside and let them duke it out." 

"Well that would have left the earth in sorry shape. The Posleen might have even decided not to invade."

"Can't have that," Buffy said. "They deserve all the hospitality we can give them."

"I've been thinking the same thing myself. Planning for that second front got me thinking big."

"Big enough to take on the Posleen?" asked Buffy.

"Well not by ourselves, but I certainly think we can orchestrate a great deal of trouble for them. Now I've got the organization and you've got the army."

"It's a relief to hear you make my argument for me," said Buffy as she sat down in a the chair across the desk from Angel. "Let's outline some plans and then we can relax a little before we start trying to convince the others. Now the first thing we should do is have Lorne......"


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Early June 2003 ad

Los Angels, California Sol III

Xander and Faith walked into the hospital room where Cordelia Chase lay in her coma. "She looks peaceful," said Xander.

"I'd like to see you say that after you had spent eight months as a cabbage," Faith said. She had never really thought about Cordelia that much in Sunnydale, but now she felt a bond with the woman.

"I wonder if she can hear us," Xander said. "Yoo-hoo Cordy, how's it going? I heard you became part demon. Thanks for retroactively giving me an almost 100% demon girl success rate. I'm waiting for Willow to sprout horns and a tail any day now."

"That'd be the only kind of tail you'd get Harris," Faith said.

"Oh yeah I forgot about you-my record isn't as good as I thought."

"That isn't the only thing not as good as you thought," Faith said playfully.

"Well I'm not going to sit around here and take abuse from you when I can go back to the hotel and get it from everyone." He leaned over and gave Cordy a peck on the forehead. "Godspeed sweetie. You coming Faith?"

"No I'm going to stick around for awhile. I'm catch up to you later. Its been awhile since I've been out on the town by myself."

"Well I'm not one to argue with an ex-homicidal slayer. Have a good time, but let's be careful out there, ok?"

"Sure thing chief."

Faith wasn't one for retrospection, but it seeing Cordelia in this state brought some submerged thoughts to the surface. In the back of her mind Faith thought she had deserved what happened to her. But she had found it hard to believe that Cordy deserved this fate. Faith hadn't actually died like Buffy did, but being in that coma was the next best thing. She never got anything as good as Buffy did, she mused with bitter irony. That had profoundly upset her in the past. Now it was just irksome. 

During her time in prison, she'd had a lot of time to think about the second chance she had gotten. The reading she'd done to get her GED and later for pleasure had helped frame her thoughts. Now she realized everyone was living their own little version of hell on earth. She wasn't unique. It may not actually make much difference in the end, but helping to ease the suffering of others instead of causing it would help her redeem herself. She wasn't sure why she cared about redemption, but she didn't want to let Angel down. And she got a small degree of satisfaction by surprising Buffy every time she did something good. That was good enough for now. 

And now was the time to go to a club and hit the dance floor. Robin could join her when he got out of the hospital, but she had to have one wild night alone for old time's sake. Except this time no one would wind up dead. Not unless they really deserved it, of course.

****

Everyone had been buzzing about the big meeting for the last two days. It would be the first time the whole group had gotten together since the memorial service for the Hellmouth victims. They set it up in the hotel ballroom. Xander worked to make the space more presentable and set up a semi-circle of six large tables, Giles sent out the invitations, Dawn put out water pitchers and glasses for everyone, and Andrew set up a microphone for every second person. It would be barely possible to communicate among such a large group of people by shouting, but the organizers had agreed that raising voices would not be a good idea.

Everyone was here. All the original and new Scoobys, all the Slayers, and all of Angel's people. Giles sat at a smaller table facing the six semi-circle tables. Buffy, Angel, and Willow were at the table with him. He started the proceedings.

"I'm sure of all you are wondering why this meeting was called. Many of you have undoubtably heard rumors the last few days. But we are here to set the rumors straight and determine what our future course of action should be. Please be patient during the first part of the meeting as we talk about the challenges we face. Everyone will get a chance to contribute, but please wait until the main speakers are done. Angel will now talk about the threats we have recently faced and those which can cause trouble for us in the future."

Angel cleared his throat and began to read from some notecards. " The most recent threats we faced were Jasmine and the First Evil. We're pretty sure Jasmine is dead or at least stuck in some non-corporal form that can't do much harm. We're not sure if the First can ever not exist, but we are fairly certain it has been greatly weakened by the destruction of its Turok-Han army and of Caleb. It will be some time before its powerful enough to take us on again. Saying exactly how long that will be is impossible, but hopefully it will be quite awhile."

"We have also recently faced garden variety vampires, trouble-making demons, and evil humans. Those we pretty have to deal with as they come up. The Slayer army and the resources of Wolfram and Hart will make it easier to handle these dangers."

"In the future we can expect to face some threat from the senior partners of Wolfram and Hart, although we don't know what they are planning or when they are planning to do it. However sticking to the May-Day theory of predicting the timing of Apocalypses is always a good bet. Heck we don't even really know what the senior partners are. But its likely they have something more subtle in mind than the usual 'destroy the world' apocalypse. With their resources they've had countless chances to bring about the end of the world. No, they're after something else and we need to find out what. Being on the inside of their LA office should help with that. Separately our groups have averted many apocalypses. Hopefully by pooling our resources, we can stop this one too, but my team should take point . We started the fight and we're going to end it."

"The other major threat we face is the Posleen. We're pretty sure they aren't coming after us personally, but they will be eventually kill all the humans they can reach on Earth if they aren't stopped. According to our information, the Posleen were obviously genetically manipulated sometime in their past. If we tried to eat a Posleen or one of the other aliens, we would probably get poisoned or even die, but so far the Posleen have been able to eat every living thing on the seventy-two planets they've conquered so far. It's a good bet the Posleen will find demons as tasty as humans. So that makes it a problem for the whole planet. That's my presentation. Thanks."

Giles spoke into the microphone and said, "Now Willow will talk about the conditions we will likely face in the future." Angel wasn't the best public speaker, but Giles thought he had warmed up nicely once he had gotten started. He had certainly talked better than he had sung during his reading with Lorne. Angel had maintained the attention of the audience. He hoped Willow and Buffy could do the same. It was vitally important.

Willow shuffled some papers and thumped her microphone. "Guess its working. Now you know I'm not one for big speeches, but I think its important we get a good idea what the future has in store for us. As for the ordinary vampires, demons, and humans, it will likely be patrolling, research, and fighting pretty much as usual, although it should be much easier with our swelled numbers. We don't know what the senior partners have in store for us, but it could be something so subtle no one even realizes it." Several people looked at Dawn at that point. "Or it could be something really big like sending us all to a hell dimension. There's no way to tell until we come against it. We just have to prepare as best we can."

"But the Posleen are very predictable. They bring death. We aren't sure yet if they are inherently evil or if they were just genetically programmed to be invaders with big stomachs, but we do know that they are coming. Billions will land in five waves. They will over run the coastal areas and then try to take the plains and make brief forays into the mountains when they can. They reproduce very fast, so a few years after the invasion begins, they will outnumber the human race. And, with very few exceptions, every Posleen is an effective fighter, whereas every human isn't. Things will be grim in a few years. I have talked with Casca about this and he's related countless stories of battlefield and civilian massacres, raping and looting and bitter hunger. It can happen anywhere and to anyone. If the Posleen aren't stopped, no one will be spared. Those who don't get eaten will scamper around mountains and die from hunger, disease, or accident. I hate to be such a downer, but that's the way it is."

Giles stammered out, "Well um, yes, thank you Willow. Now Buffy will make the final presentation on what we can do about our future." He got the sense that they were starting to lose their audience. Giles felt some of the uneasiness that he had experienced during Buffy's final speeches before she had been briefly overthrown as their leader. He was certain that the First had played a big part in the feeding frenzy that had consumed Buffy's leadership, but he was equally certain that it could happen now without provocation from the First. Giles realized he had failed his former student. Over the last week he had done everything he could to make up for that. He suspected he would spend the rest of his life trying to make amends. 

Buffy began her presentation. Giles hoped it would go over well. Casca had helped her prepare it. He had read an astonishing percentage of all the human books ever published, had listened to speeches from some of the greatest minds in history and written thousands of pages of his own memoirs. That helped greatly, but in the end Buffy's own experience would have to carry the day.

"I wish that my speech making days could be over, but I think we still have lots of work to do. We have to decide what our destiny is going to be. Remember what I told you in Sunnydale? How we had to change our destiny? Well now its changed and we have an army of Slayers, but we need to decide what to do with that army."

"Armies do one of three things, they fight wars, they band together and train to fight wars, or they disband. Well we have banded together and trained, and we have fought a war, but I don't think its time to disband. For one thing there are still many vampires and demons out there that need taking care of. Also we are all warriors now and traditionally warriors have never shirked their duty to fight the next war. And whether or not we decide to continue fighting the dark forces of this world, war with the Posleen is coming."

"Some of you may not want to slay vampires anymore. It's a good bet that you could avoid them the rest of your life if you wanted, but no one is going to be able to avoid the Posleen. This war is going to affect every thinking being on this planet. I didn't know this until a few days ago, but Robin Wood was in the military when he was younger and he's spoken to some of his old buddies and they all say that almost everyone who ever wore a uniform will be called up for service shortly. Also every able male of fighting age will be drafted and many females will be too. And the females who don't get called will either help the war effort in some non-combat way or end up as refugees. Casca has spoken to his military contacts and they say the same thing."

"Casca has seen more war than anyone on the planet and he knows that in wars for survival, governments and people do desperate things. The US government is going to use every resource it has to fight the Posleen. The government already knows about me and you can bet it won't take them too long to find out about the Slayer army. What do you think they are going to try and do with that army? Use it against the Posleen, that's what. Being a vampire didn't stop Angel from getting shanghaied into fighting the Nazis by the US government in World War Two. I talked on the phone to Riley Finn, an old friend who's in a demon fighting army unit and he told me to watch my back. Since his call was probably being monitored, I'm assuming he was warning about the government trying to use me again. The government is an impersonal machine and doesn't really care about the lives it uses up to do what it needs to do."

"But we care what happens to us. And we know best what we're capable of and how we should fight. So I personally believe we should organize to fight the Posleen. That doesn't mean we give up on fighting vampires. I think we should neutralize every dangerous demon we can find before the Posleen arrive and use that experience as training against the aliens. And when the war starts, we can let the younger Slayers guard the homefront. Xander tells me this would be similar to the Texas Rangers patrolling the frontier during the Civil War. I never knew he liked Larry McMurtry westerns," Buffy said as much of the audience laughed. 

"To sum up everything, I believe its our destiny to fight the Posleen. It's a scary thought, but the First and Jasmine were pretty scary too. But this time we'll have more experience. And we won't be alone. Every human being on the planet will be trying their best to kill the alien sons of bitches. If we don't do the best we can against the Posleen, how will we be able to live with ourselves after the invasion? Not to mention what the rest of the world will think about us if they find out we have these special powers and didn't use them."

"But don't rely on my judgement alone. Lorne can read destinies by listening to someone sing. Angel can attest that he's pretty accurate for short term stuff. Those of you who went on the 'karoke bar patrols' with him the last few nights know that we were able to save two people from vampires, three from rapes, and return one lost pet because of his readings. The further in the future he goes, the less useful it is, but we're most worried about what's going to happen five or so years from now."

"Everyone in this room has recently had a reading from Lorne. My reading said I would be fighting Posleen in five years. Is there anyone whose reading didn't basically say the same thing?" Giles saw people searching around the room for someone with a different reading. 

Casca raised his hand and said, "My reading didn't say anything about Posleen. But then again, my reading didn't say anything at all. Lorne got a blank on me, but Valkyries pulling me up to Valhalla would be the only thing that stops me from fighting the Posleen."

That drew some more laughs. Buffy got up from her chair and said, "Before we open the floor to everyone's comments, is there anyone who has already decided they don't stand with us?" No one answered. "Good, then let's talk about ways to beat the yellow monsters."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Mid June 2003 ad

Cleveland, Ohio Sol III

Tessa Johnson walked through the cemetery with a broken pool cue in her hand. It was the third night she had done so. She had been an ordinary fifteen year old girl until one day about a month ago. She was rough-housing with her older brother, Ray, and had thrown him against the far wall instead of just pushing him onto the couch like she meant to do. Her body felt alive with a new sense of power.

For some reason she had keep quiet about it. That night she sneaked out to the garage and got on the weight bench that Ray and his friends used. She began making test lifts and soon discovered she could bench press all the weights at one time. Something was going on and she wasn't sure what.

Then she began having the dreams. It was always monsters killing people. And young girls fighting the monsters. Then a week ago a classmate had been discovered dead in a nearby park. There was a rumor going round that the dead girl had bite marks on her neck. Images of a nearby cemetery keep flashing in her head during her dreams. She began to feel that she had this new power for a reason. So she began to sneak out of the house at night and walk through the cemetery.

Her father managed a pool hall and her brother's gang used broken pool cues as their signature weapons. She wasn't sure what she was looking for or what she was going to do with the cue, but she felt she had to do something.

She was about to head back home when a man walked out of the shadows. "Its unusual to find girls walking alone here at night," the man said. "I mostly see couples making out or people getting high. You're much better than some smelly old crackhead," he said as he punched Tessa in the face.

Tessa had never been in a real fight before. Getting punched shocked her so much so dropped the pool cue. She was bent over holding her jaw while the man gathered her in his arms and bent his head down towards her neck. All her instincts were screaming to get away, so she lifted her arms and broke his hold and he went flying through the air.

Tessa picked up the cue and began to run. Somehow the man was suddenly ahead of her. "Not getting away so easy," he said as Tessa rammed the cue into his stomach. It went in one side and came out the other and the man fell on the ground. Tessa burst into tears.

Impossibly, the man got up and punched Tessa so hard she flew through the air and landed hard against an ornate headstone. The man pulled the pool cue out of his body and began kicking Tessa as she lay on the ground. She was helpless and didn't know what to do. She was going to die.

Suddenly the kicking stopped. She looked up and saw Ray and several of his friends fighting the man. The man sent the gang members flying through the air with his punches and kicks. Tessa found new determination, picked up the pool cue and stuck it in the man's back while he was punching her brother. Tessa pulled it out and stuck it in the man again and again and again and again until the man suddenly turned to dust with a whooshing sound.

She coughed on the dust as she bent over her brother. "Are you okay, Ray?" she asked.

"Aside from seeing cartoon birds and anvils flying around my head, I think I'm alright. How about you, sis?"

"I'm okay. Boy was I glad to see you," Tess said as she helped him up. "Where'd you come from?"

"Johnny thought he saw you walking into the cemetery. He came and got me from the corner and we decided to come looking for you. There's bad stuff happens around here and you've been acting strange ever since you nearly gave me a concussion that day."

"Yeah something happened to me," Tessa said. "I got real strong and started having dreams. Weird dreams about monsters. And girls who fight the monsters."

"Speaking of monsters, what was that guy?"

"I don't know. Superstrong, hangs out in a cemetery at night, no tan, explodes into dust when I hit him in the heart with a wooden pool cue. Sounds like a vampire, although that's just crazy."

"No crazier than you turning into supergirl," said Ray. "Let's gather up the gang and get you back home."

"You gonna tell mom and pop?"

"No way-they'd freak and they already hate me running my piddly little gang. We'll deal with this ourselves. But we'll need some story to cover up that massive shiner you're going to have."

"Luckily mom will be going to work early tomorrow morning and dad will be still be asleep from his late shift at the pool hall, so we can get to school okay. But I think after school tomorrow you and I are going to have a sudden urge to join that karate academy by the grocery store. And we'll get a little over-enthusiastic about practicing our new moves on our way home."

"Sounds like a plan, Tessa."

"You bet-and your shiner is gonna be so much bigger than mine."

####

Mid June, 2003 ad

Los Angeles, California

Andrew sat in the warm sunlight of the Hyperion courtyard reading a book, but his thoughts were elsewhere. He couldn't get the Hellmouth out of his mind. He should have died there, just as Jonathon did. But Andrew lived. So there must be some purpose behind it. He just hoped it wasn't some evil purpose. He had tried evil and it hadn't worked out.

"Is that the new 'Enterprise' novelization?" someone asked Andrew.

"Yeah," he said pointing to the Captain Archer painting on the cover. I would so prefer a photo-cover of Scott Bakula, but what can you do?"

"I've always been a Kirk man myself, but its all good," the man said.

Andrew looked at him. He was extremely ordinary looking, but he got the feeling he had seen his picture somewhere. He noticed the label pin the man was wearing. "Is that a Psi Corps pin?" Andrew asked.

"Yeah I'm a big Babylon 5 fan too. Ivanova can really push my buttons. Hey, what's your name? I'm David Nabbit."

"I'm Andrew Wells. Aren't you that billionaire guy?"

"Yeah, but I was a sci-fi geek before I got money. Still am I guess. Look, I'm late for my meeting with Angel. Maybe I'll see you around sometime."

"Yeah that'd be cool," Andrew said. A sci-fi geek and a billionaire. And he didn't have to become an evil genius to do it. Andrew was so jealous.

####

"Seemed like a nice enough guy," David thought as he walked into the hotel. The last time he'd been here he'd felt bitter disappointment when he found out Angel wanted his business expertise, not his help with a case like David had hoped. He had put the hurt behind him and concentrated even more on his business. He'd been surprised when Angel had called about a month ago for possible help against some evil power.

All his geekboy fantasies came back to the surface as Angel and him had sketched out some brief plans. But his glee at working with a true hero was short-lived. The evil had been defeated in Sunnydale and Angel didn't need his help anymore. Then Angel had called again. This time the vampire assured David that the threat wouldn't be going away anytime soon.

David asked for Angel and one of the several young women in the lobby showed him to the office where Angel and two other young women were discussing something. One of the women was saying, "Andrew and Vi made that video today, it should really help with......" when Angel saw David at the doorway.

"David, glad you could make it. I know you're a busy man, but we would have come to you...."

"Well, I wanted to see where the real action was," David said. "Who are your friends?"

"This is Buffy Summers-the Senior Slayer," Angel said of a short blonde beauty who smiled at him. David instantly knew she was way out of his league. "And this is Anya, who'll be taking notes of our meeting, if you don't mind that."

"I don't mind at all," David said. "Pleased to meet you both." Anya was also a beauty, but in a different and exciting way.

"You have lots of money," Anya said. "I appreciate a man who can make the capitalist dream come true."

"Uh, thanks," David said.

"As you know," Angel said, "Me and my people are going to be taking over the LA branch of Wolfram and Hart soon. We're taking their offer so we can root out the heart of the evil that controls the company. It wouldn't hurt to have some high some high-powered business back-up in that struggle."

"Well, you know I'm your man when it comes to business," David said, feeling a little disappointed.

"Good. That's for the short-term, but in the long term we're putting together an army so we can do our part in the fight against the Posleen."

"Yeah. I'm starting to gear my companies up for the war effort too."

"David, I know in the past we haven't wanted to expose you to the dangers we face, but now the whole planet is threatened. We want you to be a part of our army. I know you can make a great contribution and you'll get the fight I suspect you've always wanted."

"Mr. Nabbit," Buffy said. "I don't know you, but I do know you are one of the few leaders out there who is comfortable dealing with the mystical side of things. We really could use your help."

"You've got yourself a recruit," Nabbit said as his heart brimmed over with emotion.

"Fantastic, David," Angel said. "I think you'll like the plans we've come up with so far, but we need your insight on how to make some things work......."

David couldn't have been any happier if he had been beamed up to the bridge of the Enterprise.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Late June 2003 ad

Los Angeles, California

"Okay I believe that finishes the plans for the recruiting trips, we'll just need to have the recruits sign the new 'Slayer's Covenant' when they report for training. Lord I'm glad to see Dawn get something out of her schooling. That was a good idea she had," Buffy thought to Willow, Giles, Angel, and Wesley as they silently sat in a circle of chairs in a hotel suite. After taking into account the ability of the First to possibly hear and see anything it wanted to and also the fact that Wolfram and Hart might have some untraceable means of eavesdropping, it had made sense to start having telepathic meetings to discuss the most secret details of their plans.

"Faith and Robin will leave for Georgia in shortly and then the rest of us will leave at the first of the month," Giles summarized.

"The trips should give everyone a chance to visit friends and family and start unwinding and get Sunnydale out of our systems,"thought Buffy.

"And we do need to make contact with the new Slayers as soon as possible. All we need to do is look at that poor Dana girl we found in the mental ward as an example of the things that could go wrong with Slayer power," Wesley projected.

"Yes, she probably would have ended up killing someone if we hadn't taken charge of her. Its too bad the Galactics aren't as advanced in human mental health as they are in other fields. And sane Slayers can kill just as easily if they don't properly know how to use their power," Giles thought to the group.

"We're going to need all the power we can get," Angel conveyed to them. "The new Slayers and the fighters that Nabbit will make for us still won't be enough though. I hate to admit it, but we're going to have to go with the plans for using vampires and demons."

"I didn't like Spike having that chip in his head when he had a soul," Buffy projected. "It denied him the chance to choose be a good man. But Spike told me himself that he wouldn't have gotten his soul in the first place if the chip hadn't forced him to control his urges and want to be something better."

"I know what's its like to be without a soul. Not many can resist evil in that condition," Angel thought to the others. "Vampires are no use to anyone in their natural state. Well except for when Angelus killed the Beast, but Jasmine would have done that anyway. At least with chips, vampires can be used to fight the Posleen. But demons are going to be a trickier proposition because many of them have souls and some of them don't need conditioning to do the right thing."

"Lorne will help a lot with determining which demons need chips ," Willow added. "We'll need to get into contact with the government again. Hopefully they'll be able to design a new chip that won't start misfiring like Spike's did. One that won't let them hurt humans or demons, but will let them fight the Posleen."

"The government will also be able to help with the new weapons we're thinking about. Nabbit can do a lot, but he doesn't have all the resources we'll need," Wesley projected.

"But we can't let them dictate how we put together the army," Buffy thought to the others. "Once we get the army together and find a governor that's willing to grant us National Guard Unit status we'll fall under Federal control, but by then our tactics, personnel, and weapons should be fairly well set. Our best chance at success is fighting the way we think we should fight."

Buffy's words gave Willow butterflies in her stomach. Everyone had agreed that magic would be a big part of effectively fighting the Posleen. And Willow was their go-to-gal for the mojo. She wouldn't be able to do it alone. They would need big magic. Willow had already contacted a couple of local covens looking for recruits and she was also searching the internet for fellow wiccans. In addition to finding Slayers, the coming recruiting trips would also be used to make contact with promising witches, warlocks, and other mystics.

Willow knew she had great power. Still not as much as she'd wielded during her few days of grief and madness, but more than any human in recent memory had. She would be able to do a lot of damage against the Posleen. But the magic would drain and possibly corrupt her again. She thought it was a good bet that she would be dead or evil before it was all over.

She accepted that as the price she might have to pay for her past sins. But she didn't want to leave Kennedy. Against all her expectations she had found someone to love and who loved her back. If Willow could hold on, it would ultimately be for Kennedy and the memory of her departed Tara. She didn't want to think what might happen if Kennedy fulfilled a Slayer's destiny and died.

#####

Late June 2003 ad

Blitchton, Georgia Sol III

Faith had one foot hanging out the passenger side car window and was grooving to an old Aerosmith song that was playing on "classic rock I-95." She was a little confused that "I-95" was the name of the radio station, but also the name of the interstate she and Robin had briefly traveled on to get from the Savannah airport to the city itself. And now she was traveling down I-16 to the middle of god knew where to find the "Green Eyed Lady," whatever the heck that really was. She wasn't used to the ninety percent and above humidity of South Georgia in the summer, but at least the breeze felt good on her foot.

Thankfully she was away from all the boring meetings in LA and headed towards some action. After the first week of planning, she had zoned out most of the noise until Robin said, "I think we need to send someone as an observer on the military expedition that's being sent to Diess. We need to see first hand what the Posleen do. If we don't, then the first tactics we use against them have a higher chance of failure. The steeper the learning curve, the more of us die. I volunteer for the mission, of course."

"And I volunteer to go with him," Faith had interjected. "He may be the mr. secret military past man, but I'm a Slayer and we have good instincts about fighting. I'm so ready to blow this popsicle stand anyway." She was a little upset that Robin hadn't discussed this with her first, although the prospect of the trip to another planet did excite her.

She'd groaned when she found out the Diess expedition wouldn't be leaving until September, but another chance at escape had offered itself when Giles told of a former Watcher in Georgia that had found and contacted him and was asking for helping in fighting some kind of mystical monster. Since they also had strong indications of a new Slayer in North Georgia, it made sense to send Faith and kill two birds with one stone, or at least one stone and some Wood.

So she and the Woodman had flown to Savannah and met up with Brian Todhunter, the former Watcher, who was now a history professor at a local college. He was a tall and skinny, but wiry man in his early fifties with a bushy mustache and greying hair. He had taken them to an Irish pub on River Street to outline what they were up against. Walking down the cobblestoned street and surrounded by buildings that dated from the nineteenth and even eighteenth century, she had a brief flashback to her pre-Sunnydale trip to the New Orleans French Quarter which in turn reminded her of the battle with Kakistos and the death of her first Watcher.

She shrugged it off and headed into Kevin Barry's. There was a man playing Irish songs on an acoustic guitar on the small stage of the pub. It was funny, but she could never recall hearing any Irish music (except for U2) during her years in Boston. At first it sounded like nails on a chalkboard, but over the next couple of hours she kind of got into it. The melodies and words were strange to her, but the music was meant to be fun, if also a little sad. She could relate to that.

Todhunter told her and Robin that a month earlier five boy scouts had disappeared from their campsite in a hunting club while playing in the woods. The Watcher had done some research at local libraries and found a 150 year long string of accounts about missing hunters, fishermen, loggers, motorists, and even a Civil War era slave. The first disappearance had been of a twenty-eight year old unmarried woman named Amelia Evans in 1855. There were gaps between three and twenty-one years between the disappearances, although the average was fifteen years. All of the missing people had been thought to be in the area around the hunting club just before they vanished. Todhunter had checked some of his old Watcher books and determined that each disappearance took place during some kind of mystical alignment. He had consulted with Giles and determined that the last known disappearance before the scouts went missing had taken place during the time of The Master's Harvest in Sunnydale. And there had been a very powerful alignment the night the scouts disappeared.

There was also the local legend of the "Green Eyed Lady." The boy scout troop had been camping at the hunting lodge for thirty years and during that time there had been numerous sittings of a rag-covered woman with glowing green eyes. The boys of the troop made all the first time campers stay in an old house at the center of the hunting club for an hour their first night and then walk back to the campsite. The older scouts would throw rocks, rattle chains, shine colored flashlights, and do other things to scare the rookie scouts, but sometimes they saw something that seemed real. And many hunters, loggers, motorists, fishermen, and residents of the area had seen the apparition too. It was mentioned as part of some of the popular Savannah ghost tours, but people rarely drove the thirty miles out of the city to try and see it. All the sightings seemed to be at night and never more than a mile or two from the old house.

Todhunter had done some more research and found that people captured in a binding spell popular with nineteenth century witches had glowing green eyes and often appeared as ghosts near the spot where they had been bound. But these people couldn't take corporal form and usually faded away from this plane within twenty years. But he and Giles had come up with the theory that a witch caught in the binding spell might be able to work a counter spell to briefly fully materialize during the night of a mystical alignment and then capture someone, trap them in a ghost dimension, and use their living energy to stay connected to this plane of existence until the next alignment. There had been a coven in Savannah in 1855, so its possible one of the witches had bound Amelia Evans to the land of her family holdings.

Faith was drinking a black and tan when Giles had called Todhunter on the ex-Watcher's cell phone. Usually she didn't like warm beer, but the black and tan was surprisingly good. After a few minutes on the phone, Todhunter announced that Giles had just found out that a little-known mystical alinement was taking place that very night. It was one of the few cases when more than one alinement took place in a given year. Giles and Todhunter feared that the "Green Eyed Lady" would employ this night's alinement as an opportunity to use the fresh and powerful lifeforce of her captives to cast a permanent materializing spell and break free of the original binding spell. In the process of doing that, she would drain the lifeforce of the five scouts and kill them. She would also be likely to kill anyone that crossed her path after she became corporal. So she had to be stopped tonight. Faith didn't have a problem with that. She was lubricated and ready to go.

They pulled off the interstate and went down a long series of dirt roads to the hunting club gate. Todhunter finally got off the phone with Giles and Willow and said, "We shall need to get that gate open. I meant to bring a bolt cutter when we came here tomorrow, but I don't have it with me tonight."

"Not a problem," Faith said as she got out of the car and broke the chain on the gate as the car's headlights cast her shadows into the deep pine barrens.

"Let's proceed, then shall we," Todhunter said as Robin drove the car through the open gate and down the dark dirt road. The road had a grassy strip down the middle and the sandy strips on either side shone bright in the light of the nearly full moon. After a mile they came to an old, ramshackle house. It was big, but probably had not been designed to be a family residence. Todhunter said the present house had been put up by the hunting club in the late 1940s, but that it had been built on the site of the original Evans family plantation house that had been constructed in the 1840s. Across from the house there was some benches, a shed, and a water pump that hunters and the scouts probably used. Todhunter said that the scout's campsite was another mile down the road, right next to the interstate.

The three of them got out of Todhunter's old volvo and walked to the front porch.

"I hope the authorities don't choose tonight to resume their search for clues about the disappearances," Todhunter said as he strapped a small, but powerful reading light to his head and opened a big spell book. "I came by here a few days ago to get the lay of the land and just barely missed running into several deputies. There was a presence here that even a poorly trained warlock like myself could feel."

"What's the plan now?" Robin asked as he finished strapping on his gloves.

"We go into the house, I cast a materializing spell and....."

"And then I slay the green eyed monster," Faith said.

"Indeed. But I will need to drain some of the life force from both of you to cast the spell," Todhunter said as he stepped through the front door.

"Don't worry, I have plenty to spare," Faith said.

"Save some for me," Wood said "We don't want that hotel room bed to go to waste, do we?"

Faith shined her flashlight around and saw bare wooden walls that looked really old, a chimney, and some newer, but extremely decrepit and uncomfortable looking chairs. Todhunter sprinkled some kind of powder in a big circle, then arranged some trinkets in the center of the circle. He had Faith and Wood gather in the circle with him and then began some kind of mumbo-jumbo chant.

After a few minutes, Faith began to feel a breeze in the stifling heat of the room and then saw some white, yellow, and green flashes of light. Todhunter's chanting reached a climax and then something explosively materialized at the center of the circle and blew Todhunter, Robin, and herself against the walls of the room.

"I hate it when that happens," Faith said under her breath as she reached for her axe and flashlight.

A creature with eyes that glowed like powerful little green flashlights now stood in the circle. It was covered in rags that might have been a dress at some point in the distant past. Its skin was grey and dry looking.

"Girlfriend, you need some moisturizer," Faith said.

The creature looked at Faith and said in a low gravely voice, "You saved me the work of breaking the bonds of my hellish prison. Now I have more power to kill you with," it said as it took a swing at Faith.

"I'm the power girl around here," Faith said as she blocked the punch and used her attacker's momentum to throw the monster against the far wall.

"Kill it fast," Todhunter said, "the more it fights, the more she drains the boys."

Robin dusted himself off and gave the creature a punch, jab, punch combination with his fighting gloves. The creature wasn't fazed and threw Wood into another room. Faith tried to bury her axe in the creature's back, but it was unnaturally fast and ducked her stroke and pushed her to the floor. The creature then kicked the Slayer several times, until Faith knocked the creature off its feet with a leg sweep.

Faith quickly got to her feet and lined up a perfect punch as the creature was pulling itself off the floor. It flew against a boarded up window and burst through the rotten wood and landed on the ground below. Faith jumped through the window after it as Todhunter shined a flashlight on the creature. Faith stood over it and delivered blow after blow to its face as it lay on the ground. It was like punching sandpaper. The creature stopped moving and Faith heard Robin say, "Your axe" as she looked up, saw him toss it to her through the window, and then brought it down on the creature's neck.

The creature's head parted from its body and glowing green energy poured out and coursed through Faith and then into the house with Robin and Todhunter. Faith had felt a little drained after the creature materialized. Now she felt great-better than normal in fact. She looked back at the body and saw that it was fading from view. "Convenient evidence disposal," she thought, not for the first time.

When she walked back into the house, Todhunter was standing over one of five forms lying in the circle. He did a quick medical and mystical check up on the boys and said they were in a light coma, but not in any immediate danger. With proper medical attention, they should awaken in a day or two. They would be sore and lifeless for a couple of weeks, but they would have no memory of what happened to them.

They decided that the best course of action was to leave the boys in the house and stop outside a nearby convenience store and call for ambulances. They did that and then drove back towards Savannah. They cranked up the radio and had a sing-along with Bad Company's "Shooting Star" and other hits from "classic rock I-95." The trio all felt so good, they decided they should go dancing when they got back into the city. Their clothes weren't really messed up, so Faith and Robin didn't need to go back to the hotel room. There were advantages to fighting non-slime filled creatures.

Soon they were pulling off the interstate and driving around a maze of squares towards the dance club. Each of the squares seemed to have some kind of park in the middle. "This is the old part of town," said Todhunter. "Savannah was the first planned city in the new world-they were really big on squares. See that house over there," he said as they passed a big two story house. "It was used in the 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil' movie."

"I saw the movie," said Faith. "Not as bad as, say, 'Glitter' by any stretch of the imagination. But still kind of boring."

"Well it was also used in 'Glory."

"Now THAT was a movie," Robin said as they pulled into a parking lot. They could see the entrance to a club half a block down the street. A group of women walked past the car.

"Umm, a couple of those women didn't entirely look like women," Robin said.

"It must be drag night at the club," Todhunter said.

"Drag night?" asked Robin.

"As the 'Midnight in the Garden' book and movie made very clear, there are gay people in Savannah. And they like to have fun. This club has the best dancing in town, plus a white russian to die for."

"Well I...." Robin started to say.

"You had me at 'best dancing in town," Faith said as she got out the car and walked to the club.

Robin reluctantly followed and even started having a good time after a few drinks. Todhunter saw some of his male friends, introduced everyone and spent most of the time talking with them. But before the night was over, Faith was doing the 'sandwich dance' between Robin and the ex-Watcher. It had been a good night. "I slayed the monster and partied afterwards, just like old times. If only B could be here right now," Faith thought as she pulled Robin closer.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Early July 2003 ad

Los Angels, California Sol III

Angel was a busy vampire. In addition to all the planning with Buffy and the Slayers, he'd had to deal with the mounting concerns of being the new Ceo and President of Evil Incorporated. Minions of said corporation hadn't even waited for him and his people to move into their new offices before getting them involved in legal matters. He'd delayed moving to Wolfram and Hart because of the pow wows with the Slayers, but still the lawyers had came to the Hyperion and gotten him involved in the Corbin Fries case. They had been able to delay the trial for awhile, but they still didn't have an antidote for the virus their scumbag client had planted inside the heart of his own kid. Then Gunn, with the aid of implanted memories, had made a startling transformation into an eloquent lawyer and gotten a mistrial declared. That would give them time to find an antidote, remove it from the child, and then sit back and let Fries get want he deserved.

A couple of days ago Buffy had pulled Angel aside and given him a little talking to about getting involved with Wolfram and Hart. He'd reminded her that said lawfirm had created a new identity for Faith and would shortly have Andrew's record cleared. He told her that it was a powerful weapon and that he just needed to learn how to wield it. She reminded him about the amulet the lawfirm had given him and said that his powerful weapon might just end up killing him. He didn't have any response to that, so she just walked away.

A lot had happened since he left Sunnydale, but Angel still felt for Buffy. He didn't know how he was ever going to deal with it in the long term. At least in the short term she would be in Europe and he would be busy running Wolfram and Hart. Now he was finally installed in his new offices and using the "powerful weapon" metaphor again-this time to rally his troops. He picked up an envelope addressed to him and opened it to have something to do with his hands while he was motivating his troops. The amulet and then the recorporalized form of Spike were the last things he had expected to emerge from the package. Things had just gotten a lot more complicated.

####

Spike was still reeling from his fiery, painful non-death. When he had looked into Buffy's eyes that last time, he had known his whole life had lead up to that moment. He would go to his grave happy. Now he was reborn, but as a bloody ghost. And he was stuck in this unfamiliar place among strangers, except for two of the handful of the beings in this world who could still push his buttons. To top it all off, he was having the fading spells. What a grand exit for the mighty champion, pissing away into nothingness.

Just when he thought things couldn't get any worse, he saw Andrew and Anya get off the elevator and head towards Angel's office and him. He considered walking through the wall and escaping for the moment, but it wasn't in his nature to run, and these people had stood in battle with him after all. Andrew caught sight of Spike, hesitated a moment and then ran to and then through the vampire and bumped his knees against Angel's desk.

"Oh Spike, what has happened to you?"

"I've come back as a bleedin' ghost or something, that's what."

"You're like... you're like Gandalf the White, resurrected from the pit of the Balrog, just not in your old touchable, beautiful form," Andrew said. He then turned to Anya and said, "Ohh... he's alive, Frodo. He's alive."

"Why you are calling me Frodo?" Anya asked.

"Its just an allusion," Andrew said. "The important thing is that we have him and his Viggo Mortensen pectorals back."

"It sounds like you are happier to see him back than Buffy will be. Especially since she won't be able to have sweaty vampire sex with him now," said Anya.

Spike bristled at the thought of Buffy. He desperately wanted to talk with her, but not in his present impotent form. The brooding poof said she had just left for Europe, so he wouldn't have to worry about it for awhile.

"Spike, you need to talk with her," Andrew said as he pulled some kind of electronic gizmo out of his overcoat and spoke into it. "AID, connect me to Buffy Summers if you please."

"Wait, I don't want to talk with her when I'm like this," Spike protested. But then he heard her voice.

"Yes, this is Buffy, what's going on?"

"It's the most incredible thing, he's alive-well at least he's here," said Andrew said as he pointed the gizmo at Spike.

"What are you talking about--oh goodness," Buffy said as her image was shown on the view-screen of the gizmo. "But you died."

"I did luv, but now I'm back," said Spike. "You should understand how that works."

"I don't know what to say, I'll get the pilot to turn the plane around. I can be back to you in a few hours."

"Don't put yourself out, Buffy. Tall, dark and forehead told me a little about the plans you've made. Continue with your trip, you need to find those girls and help them."

"No I need to see you-to feel you," Buffy said.

Spike looked at Andrew and Anya and said, "Could you give us some privacy please?" Andrew set the gizmo down on Angel's desk and walked out the office with Anya.

"That's the rub, you can't feel me, I'm some kind of ghost," Spike said as he ran his arm through Angel's desk.

"There must be some reason for this," Buffy said.

"Bugger if I can figure what. The mob over here all think that I must be considered the property of Wolfram and Hart since I popped out of their amulet. Can't hit anything, can't fight anything, so I'm no use to anyone."

"That's not true," said Buffy. "You can still see and talk. You can be my eyes and ears over at Wolfram and Hart. I'm afraid that Angel may get corrupted by them, but I know you won't. Please watch over them until I get back."

"Haunting Angel might give me some pleasure. And if he's going to get corrupted, that's a show I won't want to miss." Spike decided not to tell Buffy that he would probably fade to nothingness before he could get the job done.

"Ok," said Buffy. "But I hope it won't happen that way. We're going to need him in the coming fight. And we're going to need you too. Spike, your going to have all the resources of two powerful corporations and one army doing all they can to get your body back. In the meantime, let me catch you up on what's been happening."

He and Buffy talked for a couple more hours. Spike felt like he was living in a brand new world. He didn't know what he and Buffy had anymore, but at least she was in this world. That was good enough for now.

####

Early July, 2003 ad

Over the Mediterranean Ocean Sol III

Xander stretched out on the roomy airplane seat and listened to the "Conan the Barbarian" soundtrack through headphones. He was in David Nabbit's private jet with Casca and Rona and they were flying to Algeria. The music was coming from a device about the size of a gameboy. Xander mused it was more like a gameboy on steroids. His AID (or Artificial Intelligence Device) was a doo-hickey made by the Darhel. Nabbit had gotten ahold of some of the devices and given one to each of the recruiting teams.

Basically the AID was a portable supercomputer that was connected to much of the earth's and even the Galactics' digital resources. If you asked the AID a question, it would answer intelligently. It could do a wide range of things, including instantly translate any spoken or written human or alien language. That would be a big help in recruiting and research. So far Xander had used it to play 'Jedi Outcast.' In order to play the game, he had to tilt his head to one side because of his missing eye. However, after they came back from the recruiting trip, he would go into the regen tanks and grow a new eye. It was one blessing among the many curses of the coming of the aliens. He had also downloaded some of his favorite music. It was like Napster had never been busted. Finally he'd found out the AID could somehow get free cable porn AND free satellite porn.

This thing was so cool-he had to talk with Willow on it. Nabbit's private jet had earlier dropped off Willow and Kennedy in New York and Buffy, Dawn, Giles, and Chao-Ahn in London. Buffy and Dawn would visit with Giles for awhile before he took care of some affairs from the old Watcher's Council. Then Buffy and Dawn would head to the Continent for recruiting and Giles and Chao-Ahn would go to China and India. Willow and Kennedy would be heading to South America, but they would be flying in Kennedy's family private jet.

"AID, show me where Willow is right now, please." Xander said.

"I am unable to comply with that request," the machine said in an unusually machine like voice.

"Look don't get stubborn with me, just show her to me."

"Under whose authorization?" the machine asked.

"Under the authorization of a senior Scooby member," Xander said. The AID finally relented and something showed up on the view screen. Xander had expected some map showing Willow's present location in New York where she and Kennedy were visiting the Slayer's parents. But the screen showed a bedroom. Two figures moved into the picture and got on the bed. They began taking their clothes off and he could hear loud moaning and kissing. "Crom," Xander muttered as he realized it must actually be showing what Willow and Kennedy were doing at that exact moment.. He had no idea the AID would record images and conversations of everything around it. He needed to tell the others about his discovery.

But first he needed to get rid of the feed from the bedroom. Xander hesitated for long seconds and finally said, "AID, show me some kind of English language television channel." The almost fully disrobed figures of Willow and Kennedy disappeared from the screen to be replaced by a news program. Saying those words was one of the hardest things Xander had done in his life.

####

Early July, 2003 ad

Habersham County, Georgia Sol III

"It looks like we've finally found the right house," Brian Todhunter said.

"Thank goodness," Faith said. "I thought we were going to be stuck in this hot car all day."

The Slayer locating spell was tricky, although this Slayer's spoor was extremely strong. It took several days of practice to really get a feel for direction and distance. Luckily it was easier to hone in on Slayers than it had been on Potentials, but it was still a process of trial and error. The coven in England was enormously helpful in locating the general area of a Slayer, but finding the exact location required a bit of work, although it got easier the nearer you got to the Slayer. As a further refinement of the spell, Giles had told them how to have the locator orb stop a given distance before it actually touched the Slayer they were looking for. Therefore they could have the orb stop outside a house and then they could get invited inside and talk to the occupants.

The first day they had visited two houses, sure that they had been reading the energy trail correctly. But the people living in the houses didn't have children, much less daughters. Still it gave them a bit of practice dealing with potential Slayer families. Todhunter had made first contact with two other Slayers before. The first one had been from a rural area in Sweden and had readily accepted her new Watcher. Over three years he had trained his Potential and come to love her as a daughter. Then she had been called. She felt she was ready, so they went vampire hunting in Stockholm. They found an old and unusually ferocious vampire. Within minutes, Ani had been thrown to the ground, her neck broken. The vampire had taken time to gloat over his victory and Todhunter used the opportunity to pick himself off the ground, collect Ani's stake and drive it to the bastard's heart by way of its back.

Then in the mid-eighties he had been assigned to a Potential in Savannah. It had been much harder to gain the trust of her and her family and when he finally did, he didn't let himself get too close to her. But when Debbie had been called, she had done him proud. Savannah wasn't a Hellmouth, but it did have many old and dangerous inhabitants. He and Debbie had taken care of all they could find and then started traveling to other parts of the country and even Europe to take care of threats. They had used Debbie's golf hobby as a cover. Whenever someone asked where they were going, it was always to some amateur tournament or to some really good course they wanted to play. Debbie had one of the more notable careers among twentieth century Slayers. But in the end, she had died. And the night it happened, she had insisted he stay in his hotel room and nurse his cold.

He had never stopped blaming himself as he became fed up with the whole viscous cycle. So he quit the Council and settled in Savannah. And told them he was gay. That had assured that they wouldn't bother him. He had kept in quiet, occasional contact with a couple of Watchers. Todhunter had gotten worried when he had lost contact with them earlier this year. When he saw the news about Sunnydale, he was sure something had happened. So he had dug up his old contacts in England until one of them was able to connect him with Rupert Giles.

His sudden renewal of interest in the Watchers had surprised him. He had led a satisfying life in Savannah and had a partner for many years, but a part of him had always missed it. There was a whole army of Slayers out there now and they needed assistance. Seeing Faith expertly take care of the green-eyed creature had made him realize that. The new Slayers didn't have her experience and would have trouble dealing with their first threats. That's why he had volunteered to help her and Robin find new Slayers and also join their new army to help train them.

Robin and Faith were an interesting couple. The son of a Slayer and an ex-rogue Slayer. Of course he was a gay ex-Watcher himself. He thought they really had something, despite the formidable barriers they both put up to keep other people out.

It looked like their Slayer lived in a big farm-type house. As they walked to the front door, he saw a girl's tricycle in the front yard. A striking raven-haired woman answered the door.

"Mrs. O'Neil, my name is Brain Todhunter, and these are my associates Robin Wood and Faith. We represent an organization called the Watcher's Council. You've never heard of us before, but there's a good reason for that." They had decided on this approach after finding out from their AID that her husband worked on some secret government project. They had also decided it would be best to let Todhunter do most of the talking at first.

"How did you know my name and what are you here about?" she asked.

"We got your name from public records and we are here because we have information about your daughter."

"Which daughter and what kind of information?" she asked.

"We're not sure which of your daughters yet, but we can easily find out. It is very important information about her future, but please do not be alarmed. I know this all sounds rather odd, but please believe me when I say its vital we talk to you and your family. If you prefer, we can come back when your husband or some other trusted party is here with you."

"I'll talk with you. This has got to be the most cryptic conservation I've ever had. Please come in," Mrs. O'Neil said.

They walked into the house. It had classic southern high ceilings. Mrs. O'Neil offered them something to eat or drink. Robin and Todhunter declined, but Faith asked for some lemonade. They sat down in the living room and Todhunter said, "If you will allow me to ask a few questions, Mrs. O'Neil, I think things will become much more clear."

"Ok and call me Sharon."

"Fine Sharon. Now around the middle of May did one of your daughters get far stronger than she used to be?"

"In fact one of them has," Sharon answered.

"Good, now has this daughter also started having dreams about monsters and girls who fight them?"

"Yes, Cally has. How did you know that?"

"Because that is what happens when a girl with your daughter's power is called. Faith also has the strength and the dreams. We have a video that will demonstrate this power for you."

Robin took out their AID, gave it to Sharon and asked the machine to play the "Chosen Demonstration Video Number One." Todhunter couldn't see the screen, but knew it would show Vi sparring with a group of ten high level karate students in their dojo. Vi still had a lot to learn about technique, but she taken care of all ten opponents as fast as Steven Seagal did with the aikido students in the opening montage of "Above the Law." Lord he'd had such a crush on that man at one time. Andrew had filmed the Slayer video and Robin had uploaded it to their AIDs.

Sharon looked up from the AID and said, "My husband has one of these. From what he's told me, you can do just about anything you want with them."

"We thought you might believe it was some kind of special effect, so Faith will provide an additional demonstration," Todhunter said. He and Robin sat up and then bent their knees while standing in front of Faith. She put one palm under each of their rear ends and easily lifted them up in the air like a circus strongman.

"Oh my goodness," Sharon gasped.

"The Watcher's Council has been around for a very long time. Our purpose is to locate and help train girls with power like your daughter and Faith have. As one final piece of proof, we have a locating device that hones in on the power of one of the Chosen. If you will allow us to use it, it will go directly to her. It won't harm her in any way and it you warn her about it before hand, it shouldn't startle here."

"She's playing in her room. Let me go talk with her."

Todhunter, Faith, and Robin exchanged nervous looks that seemed to convey the meaning of "so far, so good."

"Ok, do it," Sharon said from the hallway outside the child's room.

Todhunter summoned the locator orb in a low voice. It hung in the air for a few seconds and then went into the child's room. It must have went straight to Cally, because they heard a young voice say, "Pretty light." Sharon cupped her hand over her mouth and choked back tears as she went into the room to hug her daughter.

A few minutes later Sharon came out and said, "Was that GalTech?"

"We're not sure of its exact origins, but as far as we know it didn't come from the Galactics," Robin said.

"There is a secret world here on Earth and now your daughter is a part of it," Todhunter said.

"What's she supposed to do with this power?" asked Sharon.

"Fight evil and protect the innocent."

"But she's only four years old!"


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Early July 2003 ad

London, England Sol III

Giles had a rather enjoyable week with Chao-Ahn, Dawn and Buffy. The few days they had spent at his family homestead were a nice change of pace from the tension of Sunnydale and the bustle of LA. Dawn had really taken to horseback riding, but Buffy had enjoyed the shopping in London the most, although she had also been quite taken with the weapons collection at the Tower of London. Aside from their having to eat at Pizza Hut for lunch or dinner every day because of the girl's aversion to English food, things had went smoothly. He had been sorry to see the sisters get on the bus that would take them to the Chunnel and thus to France.

He hoped things would go as smoothly with his present company. He and Bettina Travers, widow the late Mr. Quentin Travers, had exchanged pleasantries during the first part of their tea time meeting, but now it was getting down to brass tacks.

"So how are things proceeding with the girls, Mr. Giles?" she asked. "The girls" was an expression used among Watchers for Potentials and Slayers.

"The young ladies we have made contact with so far are continuing with their training and we are making plans to relocate to the Cleveland Hellmouth."

"Fine. I'm still getting used to the fact that all the Potentials are Slayers now," Travers said. "In the past the Slayer, the Watchers, and various allies were sufficient to stave off the forces of darkness."

"Yes but the First was different that any kind of evil we had ever faced. Its quite likely the guardians of the Scythe knew we would eventually face it and forged their weapon with the express purpose of one day empowering all the Potentials. Perhaps the last guardian died before she could reveal that to Ms. Summers."

"If that's true, these guardians certainly put us to shame where long-rang planning is concerned," Travers said. "Dear Quentin would have had so much trouble adjusting to all this sudden change. He was a dedicated man, but very bound by tradition. Tell me, will you still be giving the Slayer her horrid 'birthday present?"

"Good lord, no."

"That is the thing that rankled me the most about the Watchers, but Quentin insisted we adhere to tradition. Much as it pains me to admit it, the time for change was overdue. I'm old and tired and out of touch with the girls. But you seem to have an idea of what the Watchers should be doing now. And you know the girls better than anyone that's left in the organization."

"I suppose I do," Giles said.

"I am going to muster what resources I have left and put them at your disposal, Giles. We could fight you, but we would lose and it would weaken the cause. Attitudes go in cycles and I'm sure not too far down the line one of your successors will wish to conform more to the old tradition of the Watchers. That is good enough for me."

"Well, umm, I'm not certain what to say about that."

"Don't say anything. Listen to the information I'm going to give you about the contact in Rome you asked for. I will also tell you how to access the Council's secret library, operating funds, and give you contact information for all living persons that have been connected with our organization in any meaningful way. Finally I will give you the name of a contact in America so secret that its never been written down."

Not for the first time, Giles was at a loss for words.

####

Mid July 2003 ad

Tours, France Sol III

Buffy had promised that she would show Dawn this wonderful world. So far Buffy had taken her to two other parts of the world, even if other people had ended up showing Dawn the sights. Right now they were walking along the banks of the Loire with the newest slay-gal, Giselle Villate-Autrives. Buffy had expected the new Slayer to be at least a little freaked to find out her new "savior of the universe" status. But Giselle had taken it in stride. Dawn had attributed it to "gallic stoicism," whatever the heck that was supposed to be.

Giselle was a slim sixteen year old girl with copper-colored hair. She and her family lived in the heart of Tours in an old hotel that was now subdivided into the apartments. Her family boarded students to make ends-meet, but the four story apartment's spare rooms were empty now because it was between terms, so Giselle and her mother Maude had insisted that Dawn and Buffy stay with them.

The French habit of a virtually non-existent breakfast and extremely light lunch took some getting used to, but the heavy, multi-course dinner made up for it. Even Buffy's appetite was satisfied and she gave in and let Dawn have wine with the meal. Giselle said she used to be in the habit of working off the calories from dinner with a walk along the river, but that area had gotten rough a few months ago.

Buffy asked a few pointed questions about the trouble along the Loire and it soon became clear a nest of vampires was working the area. Giselle was for all for going out to kill them right away, but Buffy made her wait. They found a practice space at the university gym and Buffy showed the new Slayer some moves. Giselle was untrained in fighting, but learned pretty fast. Buffy felt comfortable with letting Giselle back her up in the coming confrontation, especially since Dawn was there to back up the back up.

So a couple of nights later the three had eaten cous-cous followed with green tea at a Moroccan restaurant and then walked towards the river. They passed an old cathedral where several women in skimpy outfits were hanging around on the corners. "What are those women?" Dawn had asked.

"They are putains, how do you say, hookers," Giselle said.

Buffy put her arm around Dawn's shoulders and stepped up the pace. Later they crossed a broad two-lane street with a median. In one spot in the median, there were several cars parked around two small trucks with campers on the back. "What's happening there?" Dawn asked.

"More putains," Giselle said with a shrug.

Buffy knew France had decadent reputation, but this was ridiculous. Finally they came to the river and walked towards one of the reported vampire hangouts. Soon they saw a couple making out on a bench and several men lounging around a darkened park area. The dark haired man on the bench took his attention away from the girl, got up and walked towards Buffy. He seemed to be the leader and wore a red leather jacket and pants and had a cigarette dangling from his lip. "Vampires and leather," Buffy thought with a sigh.

"Hey guys," Buffy said in her chirpy voice. "You ever hear of 'Le Slayer?"

"Actually Buffy, its 'La Tueuse."

"Thanks Dawnie, now guys....."

Buffy was interrupted by rapid-fire French from the leader. Giselle shot back some more French. She sounded really pissed.

"You getting any of this," Buffy whispered to Dawn.

"Too fast for me," she answered.

Soon the argument came to a head and the leader tried to use a spinning kick on Buffy, but she dodged, caught his leg, and used it as a lever to fling him against a tree. The throw caused his tight leather pants to rip in the crotch.

"Opps," Buffy said as she punched another one and then staked him.

Out of the corner of her eye, Buffy saw Giselle and Dawn taking care of the vampire woman. Buffy saw the leader get up. Eww, he was hanging out of his pants. She rushed to dust him before Dawn could see. Buffy soon took care of the rest of the recently turned vampires.

"Very nice, Giselle, what was the argument about, anyway?"

"Rien, nothing I mean. I just said his kind wasn't welcome around here and he had a different opinion. Now the point is moot, for them at least. Let's go to a café. I could use some wine."

As she calculated reasons not to let Dawn have any more wine, Buffy was comforted by the thought that Giselle seemed to be coming along very nicely. If only the rest of the trip would go so well.

####

Mid July 2003 ad

Cleveland, Ohio Sol III

Whistler felt sorrow as he gazed upon the body of the warrior demon as it lay in state for the burial ceremony. He had been a powerful force for good, and not too shabby of a drinking buddy either. The demon had stopped several apocalypses, including one a couple of months ago, but sooner or later the law of averages said you were gonna get it.

This Hellmouth had lost its old guardian, but it had recently gained a new one. She didn't have much experience, but she was a fast learner. And she would soon be getting a lot of back-up. She would need it. He had places he needed to be and beings he needed to influence, so he tipped his pork-pie hat to his old friend one last time and left. With the Posleen coming, the scales needed a lot of tipping towards good.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

Late July 2003 ad

Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Willow and Kennedy's recruiting trip had started off chilly, then gotten violent, and was now sunny. They had planned to spend a week in New York, but cut it short because Kennedy and her parents weren't getting along very well. They still hadn't forgiven her for putting a blot on their social reputation. To most of their social peers they were the parents of a gay daughter who had legally divorced them and then run off to join some cult. Kennedy had let herself cry over the hurt she felt that her parents couldn't even realize how close she had come to dying.

Hopefully her parents would accept her life at some point, but Kennedy and Willow had thought it best to go ahead with the recruiting trip. They had taken a regular airline instead of the family jet as originally planned. Columbia was their first stop. The man who rented the jeep warned them about the dangers of kidnaping for Americans, but they had shrugged it off. So they headed to the mountains, looking for traces of a Slayer.

It took a couple of days, but they found her in a small mountain village. Her name was Carlita Fernandez and she was overjoyed to get the offer to join the new Slayer school. American Citizenship and a home in the United States for her and her family came with the offer. Her family would be sad to leave their home, but realized a golden opportunity when they saw it. There was just one thing.

Carlita's family didn't want to leave the rest of the village at the mercy of a group of drug runners farther up in the mountains who had killed several men and kidnaped several women from the village over the last couple of years as well as exacting a steep toll for using the roads. Willow had protested that it was matter for the authorities until the drug runners had been described. They had bulges on their noses and blackened earlobes, which made them Farlith demons. Each clan of these demons usually abducted several human women a year to use in their rituals. What happened to the women wasn't pretty or survivable. Willow, Kennedy, and Carlita made plans to take them out.

After a couple of days of recon, it turned out the demons had laughable security. Taking out the sentries with crossbows had been a piece of cake. The rest of the demons slept in a large bunkhouse, so Willow cast a blinding spell and Kennedy and Carlita went to work with swords. With Willow watching their backs, it was over within five minutes. Carlita started to cry at the carnage she had dealt out until Kennedy showed them a back room with old bloodstains on the walls and a pit of human bones at the center. They gathered all the bodies and all the drugs they could find and set fire to the bunkhouse.

Two days later the whole village turned out for a big feast in their honor. That night Willow and Kennedy made love under the stars. It felt good to be a hero and get recognized for it. They left for Rio a couple of days later. They would pick up Carlita and her family on their return trip to the States. Wolfram and Hart would have the necessary paperwork taken care of by then.

So now Kennedy was lying on a beach in Rio with her lover. Willow had massive sunblock on and wore a big hat. She was so cute. Kennedy got up and went to the surf so she could dunk her head and cool off a little bit. She made sure Willow got a good view of the water running from her hair to her bare breasts and then to her legs.

They had a Slayer to find in Rio itself, then another one somewhere deep in the interior. They also needed to make contact with a coven here in Rio and maybe some witch doctors in the rainforest, but that was for tomorrow and afterwards. Today they had the sun and tonight they had each other.

####

Mid August 2003 ad

Taraba State, Nigeria Sol III

At first Rona had been excited to visit the homeland of her people. When she had heard about the recruiting trips, she had volunteered for Africa. Now after six weeks of hot, dry conditions and seeing the brutal poverty and poor health care which wore down the people, she wasn't quite as enthusiastic. When they had found their first Slayer in Algeria, Rona hadn't been prepared for the torrent of anti-American hate she, Xander, and Casca had gotten from the girl's family. Her family seemed to think the Slayer power was some American plot to undermine their society.

Rona had managed to have a private talk with the Malika the Slayer one day in the market district of her city. The girl wasn't as anti-American as her parents and was smart enough to realize that Africa was going to get stream rolled by the Posleen and there wasn't anything anybody could do about it. She didn't want her family to die and promised to try and talk some sense into her parents, but if that didn't work, she would run away to America when the time of the invasion got closer. Rona left contact information and wished the girl luck.

Ethiopia had been the next stop for the group. They found a Slayer named Beatrice Moges. Her family was much more receptive to the idea of relocating to the United States. They spent a couple of weeks training the girl and then flew to their next destination, Nigeria.

They had found their Slayer in the central part of the country among the Fulani people. The girl and her family hadn't been very impressed with the trio. Rona thought their life of semi-nomadic cattle herding was so strenuous it didn't allow them much time for other concerns. There was also rising tension between the Fulani and their subsistence farming rivals, the Tarok.

In their fourth night in the Fulani village, Rona had been awakened by the sounds of shouts. Using their AID's translation program, the trio had quickly learned that the Tarok were attacking the village and would likely try to burn down as much as they could. Casca quickly went over their options-run and hide or fight. None of them were cowards, so they decided to fight, but wouldn't kill anyone since they were dealing with humans after all. So Rona got her sword, Casca his axe, and Xander his tranq gun and they headed for the burning buildings at the southern edge of the village.

There were six in the first Tarok group they ran into too and they were wielding large cutlasses. She and Casca waded into them and dealt disarming and wounding blows, while Xander watched their back and put down one that tried to get behind them. The Tarok were relative amateurs, so the fight didn't take long. They heard sounds of another struggle and when they got to it, they found Welti the Slayer fighting off a group of eight men. One of Welti's female friends lay dead on the ground. The new Slayer was wild and untrained with her machete, but fearsome enough to keep her attackers at bay until the calvary arrived.

Rona hit one in the back on the head with the flat of her sword and then kicked another one in the stomach and knocked the sword out of his hand when he doubled over. She finished him off with an uppercut to the jaw and then locked swords with another one. With her free hand, she grabbed the wrist on his sword hand and crushed bone until the man dropped to the ground. She looked around and the fight was over. Casca and Xander were okay, but the new Slayer was standing over the body of a man she had hacked to death.

Welti was like a zombie for days afterward, although her family was now friendly to the trio because they had helped to defend the village. Rona had several tearful conversations with Welti. She felt horrible about killing the man, but he had attacked her village, family and friends. Rona felt like she would have probably done the same thing in her place, but she told the new Slayer she needed training so she could take care of threatening humans without killing them. There would be plenty of demons ,vampires, and aliens for her to kill. The girl wanted that training and a new life in the States for her and her family.

At the next weekly AID conference-call meeting the trio consulted with Giles, Buffy, Willow, Todhunter, and the other members of the recruiting teams about the killing. Faith and Wood weren't able to attend. Everyone present agreed the killing was regrettable, but due to self-defense and inexperience. Rona wondered how the discussion would have went if Faith had been there. They thought Welti knew that killing humans was wrong and could become a fine Slayer in time. Then everyone recounted their progress during the past week, although Giles was a bit vague about his activities in China.

They were still perplexed by the not quite five year old Slayer in Georgia though. Eight was usually the youngest age a potential could be recognized, although a couple of seven year olds had been recorded. None of the other teams had found anyone younger than eight. The child's mother was reluctant to let the Watchers have anything to do with her child, although she had been relived to be given an explanation for her daughter's new found strength and dreams. Everyone agreed they should wait until the girl got a few years older and then approach the parents again.

After the meeting, Rona prepared for another restless night in the sweltering heat. She really, really missed air conditioning. She hoped the Slayer in South Africa they would start hunting next week lived in a city. It would be nice to get a taste of civilization again before they made their way back up the western part of Africa and then back home. But through all the complaining, she realized the priceless opportunity she was having to see civilizations and people that would be soon be wiped out by the Posleen. Sometimes the sadness of that really got to her. She would be a lot more thankful for home from now on.

####

Late August 2003 ad

Montreal, Canada Sol III

Andrew was busier than he had ever been in his life. Warren and Jonathon had done most of the work during his evil genius period and watching tv and trying to make funnel cakes had been among his activities in his "guestage" phase, but now he was doing real work, important work. Per the rules they had made up during the Hyperion meetings, nearly every day he trained with the Slayers and other members of the group. He liked the days when David Nabbit could join in the best. He was a much gentler sparring partner than Anya. He could take Nabbit about half the time.

He and Anya frequently met with the billionaire about several ongoing projects. Anya and Nabbit had gotten really chummy lately and even went on a few dates. Andrew also helped with recruiting American Slayers. He, Wesely, and Shannon had successfully recruited Slayers in Los Angeles, San Diego and Utah. Wesley and Giles thought he was ready to tackle one in the primary Watcher role, so he, Vi, and Shannon had headed to Montreal. The confidence he felt from his new status as a Watcher and his physical training made him feel 82% more manly. He had even stopped thinking about Spike and bugging the vampire so much. Of course Spike had threatened to have Harmony drop him off the top of the Wolfram and Hart building.

The Slayer they found was really cool. Her name was Claire Downs and she was twelve. Her, Vi, Shannon and he had done some neat things like floating model boats in the pond of Montreal's big central park, having an ice cream party and painting their nails. Andrew really liked his new candy apple red toenails and started wearing sandals to show them off.

He'd regretted the sandals when they were tracking through filthy downtown alleys on the trail of a vampire. Everyone was now trained on the basic demon locating spell and they had gotten a strong vampire presence when they cast it in Montreal. Claire hadn't been too keen on going after the vampire, but Vi and Shannon were, so off they went to hunt the creature of the night.

They found him in a flea bag motel. It wasn't much of a fight. Vi and Shannon knocked the vampire around and then tasered him to keep him still while Andrew bound the vampire. They now had a policy of capturing all the North American vampires they could find rather than staking them. They would keep the vampires in welded metal coffins and on slow blood drips until the new chipping process was ready. They had tried hibizine on some LA vampires and found it hadn't worked, probably because the vampires were dead rather than alive like the humans the drug had been designed for. Hibizine was a galactic drug that lowered body functions and kept a body virtually in suspended animation for up to 180 days at a time. They had tried the drug on several other varieties of demons, including Lorne, and it worked on them.

The vampire had looked and smelled like a homeless person. They theorized that he had preyed on the city's homeless population in order to avoid drawing attention to himself. They also found empty blood bags and packages from butcher shops, so he must have been using non-human blood to stave off his cravings as much as he could.

It was going to be a pain to keep the vampire under watch at all times and get him across the Canadian border, but their connections at Wolfram and Hart would help take care of that. Claire had agreed to attend the Slayer school during the regular school year, but would stay with her family the rest of the time. The school wouldn't actually be officially in session until early next year, although most of the Slayers would relocate to Cleveland before then. Andrew and Anya were also making preparations for that move. Being good was a lot more work, but he felt better about himself these days.


End file.
